Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

Let us take meals on wheels as an example and then consider the school meals provision programme for which multi-annual funding is available. The process is constructed in a way that only massive companies can tender. They do not pay their workers well unlike in the community and voluntary sector. A stream of funding and certainty is available to that sector for private businesses. I have previously asked this of the Minister. I believe there is scope for meals on wheels to get involved in that. This would give us real oversight on the quality of the food and the local element, as well as using the considerable resources of the State to drive decent wages. That needs to be considered.

The witnesses referred to the SILC data, which contain a variety of one-off cost-of-living measures. Thanks to the media and leaks from the Cabinet, we know that there are people who sit at the Cabinet table who believe the cost-of-living crisis is over. I would be interested to know if that is the witnesses' view or the view of the people they support. Obviously, the one-off measures were important but in terms of the cost-of-living crisis, I do not believe it is over and my constituents say it is not-----